During the birth of babies it sometimes becomes necessary to make an incision in the vaginal area. Such an incision is made when it appears that a jagged tear of the vagina is otherwise inevitable, and the incision, called an episiotomy, is made in order to obtain a clean cut and to direct any tear which may occur in any event away from the sphincter or other more delicate structures.
After the baby has been born, it is necessary to suture, or sew up, the episiotomy and any related lacerations. While the suturing is sometimes done by the physician, it may also be done by a nurse-midwife. It is a relatively complex suturing operation and one which requires a considerable degree of skill. Moreover, there are several distinct types of episiotomies and related lacerations, and each requires a somewhat different suturing operation.
Nurse-midwives are conventionally taught how to suture episiotomies and related lacerations by theoretical discussions, films, rubber band teaching devices, and to a limited degree, practice on cadavers. In addition, an "episiotomy repair model" which can be used as a teaching aid is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,195,420, issued Apr. 1, 1980, to Sandra Fields. However, the episiotomy repair model disclosed in the Fields patent suffers from two significant defects. First, it illustrates only a single type of episiotomy, so that a substantial number of different models must be used to teach the suturing techniques used for different types of episiotomies. Second, it employs grommet-reinforced holes in the "skin" layers, so that "suturing" is accomplished in a very unrealistic fashion by passing the needle through the grommet holes, rather like threading a shoe lace.